West Virginia and Kansas Meet on ESPN’s Big Monday

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Nationally ranked Kansas will be making its first-ever appearance at the WVU Coliseum on Monday night in a Big 12 game that will tipoff at 9 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN.

Quick Hitters• Kansas marks the 13th opponent with a Top 3 ranking to play at the WVU Coliseum and in Morgantown. The last was No. 2 UCLA on Feb. 10, 2007, a 70-65 WVU victory.

• Kansas becomes the fifth men’s basketball program with at least three NCAA titles to play at the Coliseum. The four others being UCLA (11 titles), Kentucky (eight), Duke (four) and Connecticut (three).

• Bob Huggins, with 719 career wins, needs five wins to tie Ray Meyer for 18th place on the NCAA Division I all-time winningest coaches list. He is currently tied with Don Haskins for 19th place. Huggins recorded win No. 700 against Missouri State on Dec. 22, 2011. Huggins became the 20th Division I head coach to win 700 career games. Huggins’ record now stands at 719-277 in his 31st season as a head coach.

• West Virginia is playing its first season in the Big 12 Conference in 2012-13. The Mountaineers were members of the Big East Conference for the previous 17 seasons.

• Bob Huggins has wins over 20 ranked teams since he has been the head coach at West Virginia, including eight over a Top-10 ranked team in the last six seasons.

• West Virginia has a 126-31 (.807) record against teams in their first visit to the Coliseum.

• West Virginia is 65-16 in the WVU Coliseum under Bob Huggins, including a 33-15 mark in league games at home.

• WVU is 474-136 (.779) all-time at the WVU Coliseum and 95-19 at the WVU Coliseum in the last eight seasons.

• Under Bob Huggins in the WVU Coliseum, WVU is averaging 75.4 ppg, while holding its opponents to 61.5 ppg.

• WVU’s average margin of victory at the WVU Coliseum under Bob Huggins is +13.9.

• The Mountaineers have won 47 of their last 65 conference games at the WVU Coliseum.

• Bob Huggins is 12-10 in Big 12 Conference games. He is 2-4 at WVU, and his Kansas State team posted a 10-6 Big 12 record in 2006-07. The Wildcats finished fourth in the Big 12 in 2007.

• West Virginia is 56-40 under Bob Huggins in conference regular season games.

• WVU has started 12 different players this season with 10 different starting lineup combinations.

• Freshman Eron Harris has started the last four games for WVU. During that stretch, he’s been WVU’s leading scorer in the last three games, is averaging 15.8 ppg and is shooting 52.8% (19-36), including 50% (11-22) from 3-point range.

• The Mountaineers have three transfers on the roster in 2012-13. Junior center Aaric Murray led La Salle in scoring (15.2), rebounding (7.7) and blocks (2.3) in 2010-11. Sophomore guard Juwan Staten led the Atlantic 10 in assists with 190 as a freshman at Dayton in 2010-11. Senior guard Matt Humphrey has one year left after transferring from Boston College, where he was second on the team in scoring at 10.3 points per game.

• West Virginia has made at least one 3-point field goal in 442 consecutive games. The last time WVU did not make a 3-point field goal was against Robert Morris on Nov. 27, 1999.

• WVU is predicted to finish sixth in the Big 12 Conference poll. In eight of the last 10 seasons, the Mountaineers have finished higher or equal to their preseason prediction.

• WVU has made five straight NCAA appearances and seven in the last eight seasons. In the year the Mountaineers didn’t make the NCAA tournament (2007), they won the NIT.

• Bob Huggins has led WVU to the NCAA championship in each of his first five seasons. The last time WVU made five consecutive NCAA appearances was from 1955-60, when the Mountaineers went six consecutive years to the NCAA tourney.

• West Virginia has won 64 of its last 78 games when holding its opponents to 69 points or less.

• West Virginia is 37-1 under Bob Huggins when shooting 50 percent or better from the field.

• West Virginia is 104-21 under Bob Huggins when leading at halftime.

• West Virginia is 111-14 under Bob Huggins when leading by 10 or more points in a game.

• West Virginia is 103-6 under Bob Huggins when posting a higher shooting percentage than its opponent.

• West Virginia has won 72 of its last 83 games when scoring 70 or more points in a game.

• The Mountaineers are 95-14 under Bob Huggins when scoring 70 or more points in a game.

• West Virginia is 108-25 under Bob Huggins when outrebounding its opponent.

• West Virginia has allowed its opponent to shoot 50 percent or better only 31 times under Bob Huggins (195 games).

• Twenty-four of the last 25 senior members of the men’s basketball team have graduated on time or early since 2004.

• WVU is 14-9 all-time on Jan. 28. The Mountaineers are 482-309 all-time in the month of January.